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Afghan President Ready To Step Aside If Election Is Held

By RFE/RL March 30, 2021

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told a regional summit on March 30 that he "strongly" backs early elections and would hand over power to an elected successor.

Ghani spoke at the ninth Heart of Asia summit in Tajikistan's capital, Dushanbe.

"I...strongly support holding elections at the earliest possible time," Ghani told the conference. "My greatest honor will be to hand over authority to my elected successor."

The summit comes as the United States and other powers attempt to resuscitate the peace process by pushing for a new transitional government, a proposal resisted by Ghani, who says elections must take place before he will step down.

Violence has risen in Afghanistan while progress has stalled at peace negotiations in Doha between Ghani's government and the militants.

RFE/RL last week reported that Ghani would come up with a counterproposal to hold snap elections within six months or a year right after a peace deal is signed with the Taliban.

A senior Afghan government official told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan on March 23 that Ghani will unveil details of his proposal at a U.S.-initiated international peace conference in Turkey next month, but also said the militant group has rejected the proposal.

He added that once a political settlement was reached, it should be endorsed by a traditional Afghan assembly known as a Loya Jirga and followed by a cease-fire with international monitoring.

The Dushanbe conference was the latest high-profile meeting on Afghanistan as the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden reviews a peace plan with the Taliban reached by the previous administration last year.

Under that plan, U.S. and other foreign troops should withdraw from Afghanistan by May 1 -- a deadline which Biden has said will be difficult to meet.

Earlier in the month, regional players met with Afghan political and government leaders as well as Taliban negotiators in Moscow. U.S. special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad also attended.

With reporting by Reuters, dpa and TOLOnews

Source: https://gandhara.rferl.org/a/afghan- peace-president-ghani-ready-step-aside-if- election-held/31178753.html

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.